Li Yuchen paused his cries long enough to check if his grandmother had gone out. When he saw she had, he got ready to leave as well.
His cries gradually lowered, and then he said to his dad in his 'sick voice', "Dad, I'm thirsty. Please get me water."
Li Chuanmo immediately stood up and went to get water from the dispenser. The moment he pressed the button for water, Li Yuchen sprang up and sprinted out, startling Pei Yueran.
The movement jolted Li Chuanmo out of his worried haze and he turned in time to see Li Yuchen, the 'sick boy', running away so fast.
"Li Yuchen!!!!!"
"Sorry Dad, you and my goddess have to talk things out and mend your relationship. I'm so sorry my Goddess." After Li Yuchen got out and locked the door, he shouted these sentences.
"Xiao Chen, stop this nonsense and open the door immediately." Li Chuanmo shouted.
Pei Yueran was bewildered. How could someone that was crying in pain a moment ago run so fast the next? It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was pretending.
"Xiao Chen, can you please open the door for Auntie?"
Li Yuchen just ignored his Dad and spoke to Pei Yueran. "I'm so sorry My Goddess, but you and Dad need to talk."
"Auntie and your Dad are not quarreling, so just open the door and let us all talk."
"I'm sorry. Bye." Li Yuchen said and ran off to Zhang Heying.
Seeing him, Zhang Heying knew that their plan had been executed. She was satisfied. It was now time to deal with the person that planned to harm her son and future daughter-in-law.
*****
Li Chuanmo had been pacing around for more than ten minutes, since Li Yuchen locked the door. Pei Yueran couldn't bear it anymore.
"Sit down. You're making me dizzy."
Li Chuanmo ignored her.
"Suit yourself then." She kicked off her shoes and looked around for a chair. When she didn't see one, she sat on the rug near the bed instead.
They had been so frazzled when they entered that they didn't notice the bottles of wine and the glasses on the table.
Pei Yueran opened one bottle, filled two glasses and downed an entire glass of wine. She then refilled it and took a sip.
"Good wine." She said to no one in particular.
She was feeling a little hot, despite the low temperature of the room. She got up and adjusted the temperature, taking it lower before sitting down again.
Li Chuanmo stopped pacing and looked at her. He was surprised to see her chug down a glass of wine just like that. He didn't know that she had good alcohol tolerance.
After standing still and looking at her for a while, he walked towards her and took the glass she had filled for him. He also downed it in one gulp and refilled his glass.
Both of them sat down side by side, drinking wine without speaking or looking at each other. When one bottle finished, Li Chuanmo got up to get another one, and they finished that one too.
While Pei Yueran opened the third bottle, Li Chuanmo broke the silence.
"When I was twelve, my biological mother cheated on my father, stole his savings and ran away with another man. My father was hit by a car some weeks later, when he was returning from the bar he went to drink in. He died on the spot. I was taken to the orphanage home by my aunt, since she didn't want the hassle of taking care of me."
Pei Yueran listened, shocked. He continued in an even tone of voice,
"I was bullied badly there. Sometimes, I wondered how my biological mother could do that and just abandon her family. She was the reason I was suffering. How could she be so greedy and selfish?"
Pei Yueran felt her heart clench, and tears began to build up in her eyes. Her heart went out to the lonely teenager he once was. She touched his hand.
Li Chuanmo continued his story, "Mother and Father were the ones that brought light to my dark life. They rescued me and brought me home, giving me love and care. For a time, I forgot the pain my biological mother put me through and embraced my new life."
"Then the paparazzi started hounding us, ending our peaceful life. Mother almost died at one time, and I felt so guilty. It was all my fault. I asked them to let me leave, or at least send me to a boarding school, but bless their heart, they wanted me to stay with them."
"I traveled abroad knowing I had a family, but more pain was waiting for me. All the women that claimed to care for me only loved my money. They didn't care to look past the money and see the real me, and my heart was ruthlessly stomped to pieces.
"After my third girlfriend left me, I finally decided to leave aside every comfort Father and Mother gave me and work part time to feed myself. That was where I met Xie Weiwan." His voice became hoarse.
"She was pretty, gentle, and seemed to really like me, despite how poor I looked then. I thought I had met the person who could truly love me. We got married, settled down and had Li Yuchen. Life was good, or so I thought."
"Then one evening three years ago, I came back early from a business trip and walked in on her cheating on me with her coworker." Li Chuanmo laughed mirthlessly.
"Apparently she had already filed for a divorce while I was away. She didn't want us to talk and try to save our marriage. She said she wanted out. She didn't want Li Yuchen either."
"I couldn't understand. What did she hate so much? What happened to us? What did I do so wrong that I didn't even deserve a chance?" Li Chuanmo asked facing Pei Yueran. She hugged him and patted his back as he cried.
"So that's why I lashed out at you. I thought all women were the same, and love was the stuff of fantasies. Maybe I was just looking for what didn't exist, or what was not for me. I'm sorry for all the things I said the other day." he apologized.
"It's okay, it's okay", Pei Yueran kept consoling him. When he had calmed down a bit, she started to tell him her story.